Code Instability
by greenhillsblueskies
Summary: Two game characters are dead, and Sonic is the cause. Shadow tries to figure out what's wrong with him so he can fix their game, but soon realizes he may be in over his head. Warning for Violence and mentioned Major Character Death. A different take on EXE.


**[[AN:Okay, this is a little gross. It's more than a little violent. And it's not happy. It never becomes happy. So there, I warned you. I wanted to do a new take on the EXE thing, so I experimented a bit and this was the best one I could get right now.]]**

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Nobody understood what happened to him on the day he snapped. Of all of the characters in the game, Sonic had the least reason to go rouge. He was the headliner, the most beloved out of all of them. He was the one The Player got to actively control (well, most of the time - Shadow sometimes got a level or two). He was the most pleasant out of all of them, and though he destroyed robots as part of the game, when it came to living things, nobody thought Sonic could hurt a fly.

Now, the corpses of Tails and Knuckles proved that wasn't the case. It had been four days, and they still couldn't make sense of it.

Those left behind had to figure something out. If they couldn't fix this, then the game could never be played again - not without hurting other people, or scaring The Player. And that meant they were as good as dead - a game unplayed grew stagnant, and the people inside painfully still.

Shadow and Rouge couldn't let that happen.

Not long after Tails' and Knuckles' funerals, they went back to the containment unit where they were holding Sonic. Or, at least, the thing that used to be Sonic - when they brought him in, he looked like a warped version of himself, with dead eyes and sharpened appendages, emanating sparks off his person.

"Are you sure about this, Shadow?" Rouge asked him while setting up his ear piece communicator. "It took everything we had just to capture him in the first place. Knuckles… Knuckles died to do it. I don't want to lose you too."

Shadow nodded his head and crossed his arms. "Sonic is contained well. He can't do any damage to me when he can't move. And if we don't know how he became this way, we'll never know how to fix the root cause. It's the only way."

Rouge finished with his ear piece and secured her own. She tapped a button, and he heard the three beeps of a connection being established. "Are you sure you don't want to try Doctor Eggman again? Or go through the last few game save files? If we can find the cause without putting you in danger-"

"-then we would have been able to do that already. We don't have time to do things the slow way. I'll be fine."

"And The Player isn't suspicious?"

"The Player's been working on some new Mario game for the past week. I don't think he even knows anything is wrong, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Good. We have some time, then." Rouge heard her own words echoed back at her through the audio link and nodded. "The communicator is working. I'll try to be quiet as much as possible and record, but if I tell you to get out, you get out, hear me?"

"Fine." Shadow waved her off, opening the door. The reinforced locks unhinged themselves with a pressurized hiss, and as he stepped through and the door closed behind him, he could hear it seal itself shut again. Instead of the sounds of air conditioning and technological whirring from the hallway, in here, he could only hear the sounds of his own breathing and those coming from the cell's occupant.

There he was. The being formerly known as Sonic the Hedgehog.

The chains held him securely now, keeping him from causing more harm to anybody else. The metal was laced with Chaos reinforcements, adding a level of security that hadn't been used since the data corruption incident of three years ago. Shadow shook his head at the memory - The Player had unplugged their machine in the middle of a save, and their progress was halfway stuck in a void. At the time it seemed like the end of the world, but one connection to the internet and back up update later and they were fine - well, they had to start from the checkpoint, but otherwise they were fine.

This… well, this was much worse. Trying to fix the code lead to _Script Incompatible_ warnings. Trying to repair Sonic just seemed to make him more powerful. Worst of all, they were never able to bring Tails and Knuckles back, meaning they were truly dead. For now, the best they could do was keep Sonic contained until they figured out what exactly they needed to do to fix him, as well as hope The Player never found out.

The blue hedgehog thrashed in his restraints upon seeing the other hedgehog, as if he had awoken from a long slumber. "Shad-d-d-d-" he cried out, sounding both pained and overjoyed at the same time.

"Don't speak unless I tell you to." Shadow lifted Sonic's chin, taking care to avoid the mouth as much as possible. His teeth were sharp and jagged, sticking out of his lips like a shattered mirror from its frame. When he had first seen it, the brokenness of it startled him enough to jump backwards. Now, it was a fact of life. A terrible, horrifying fact of life, but still there. He couldn't talk anymore without stammering, or lingering too long on certain letters. It didn't sound like nervousness or illnesses, but more like when speakers don't quite connect to a sound source and try to make it up by creating white noise. It was…unsettling, to say the least, to hear that coming from a person. "It looks painful to be you right now, Sonic. Of course, it's more painful for the people you killed, but this isn't exactly a contest."

"It-t-t hurtssssss so much-ch-ch to-"

"What did I just say?" The grip on the chin strengthened, and Sonic winced. "If you talk, it will just be worse."

"-t-t-to not eat-t-t-t y-you."

Shadow stopped short, drawing his hand back slowly. Eat him? Was that what he was trying to do to Tails? To Knuckles? He looked at the arms held back by Chaos infused metal. Those hands… no, not hands. Those claws were deadly sharp. He hesitated upon remembering the corpses he had found, as well as the effort it took to sedate him. He had to tread lightly here.

"We've tried to feed you, and you didn't even try what we brought. And you're not taking rings anymore - in fact, they seem to be repelled by you." Shadow narrowed his eyes. "You don't have an excuse to be hungry."

Sonic groaned at the mention of rings. "I c-can't eat-t-t-t like th-that anymore. And-d rings… it doessssssn't work right. Th-that was one of th-the things th-that the mod ch-changed-d-d."

Shadow's ears perked up at that word. A mod… they had never used them much before. Never needed to- The Player enjoyed the game just as it was, right out of the box, so they didn't need to make any changes to it. Sure, they took patches sometimes to fix bugs - and frankly, Shadow wondered why they even did that, since the issues were so obscure The Player never ran into them - but those were straight from the manufacturer and guaranteed to be safe. They never did anything that could potentially make the game unstable. Ever.

Shadow crossed his arms again. Was the room beginning to chill, or was it just him? "You brought in outside code," he said matter-of-factly. "Why would you do that? You have no idea if it's been tested, or what anyone would sneak in there-"

"It'sssss too late f-for that, Shadow. Modsssssss, they're calllled. Th-they put new c-c-code in the g-game to make y-you strong-g-ger. F-faster. I kn-now The Player was g-getting bored, and I w-wanted to make it more f-fun to pllllllllllay." He tilted his head up to the ceiling, as though to look for The Player. Nobody knew too much about him - in fact, they didn't even know if he was a "he" at all - but they knew he existed, and they knew he was why they were all there. "Hhhhhhhhhhaven't you n-noticed he hassssn't playyyyyed-d-d with ussssss much thessssse days? And-d-d that the timesssssssss between playsssss were getting long-g-ger? Somed-d-day, he wassssssssn't going to usssse us at allll. I c-c-couldn't let-t-t that happ-p-pen. Not-t to me, or t-t-to any offffffffff my ffffffriends."

Shadow scoffed. "Well, now your friends are dead. You know that, right Sonic? That you killed them because of your idiotic decision?"

Sonic didn't look perturbed by this at all, instead shifting back and leaning against the wall. "W-w-well, at lllllleasssst they t-tasted good," he said, as nonchalantly as if he was talking about yesterday's breakfast.

Shadow stopped, looking at the other's body. He was in rough shape - the spines along his back ragged from lack of maintenance. Before all this, he and Shadow would help clean each other's spines between play times, making sure all of them were in place and as sharp as possible so that the perfect spin dash could break through robot shells with no problem. Now he wouldn't go near him because he didn't know if the next thing Sonic tried to break with an attack would be him.

Sonic seemed to notice the close attention because he leaned forward, speaking in a near whisper. "Wh-what, Shad-d-d-dow. D-do you misssssssss the old-d-d me? Th-the one that look-k-ked nice? Lik-k-ke a heroooooo?"

"Every day."

"Well that'sssssssss too bad-d-d-d." He rolled his shoulders, making a popping noise, and the static fell away from him like beads of sweat. "I g-got a ffffffeeeeeeelllling there's no g-going b-b-back thisssss time."

"Don't say that."

"B-b-b-but it'ssssss true. I m-m-mean, why wwwould I? It wwwwwwwwon't make you l-l-like me any more. It won't b-b-bring T-t-tails or Knuck-k-kles back. And-d-d-d you know, I d-don't even think it would m-m-make The Player c-c-come back to ussss." The words were said without emotion, but Sonic did start to cry. The tears were red, like blood, but when Shadow dragged his finger in the trails going down his face, they dissolved upon touching. It was cold, like touching a thick fog.

"What the-"

"Y-y-you know, Shadssssssssssss, I even-n g-g-gave mys-self red-d-d-d-d eyesssssssssssss, jussssssst lik-ke yoursssssssssss… The P-Player always thought th-they look-k-k-k-ked c-cool, I th-think." The eyes darkened again, blinking black for just a second before going back to their nearly normal selves. Shadow hated to admit it, but it was uncanny. If Sonic's mouth was like a shattered mirror, his eyes were like a crystal clear one - they really were exactly like his own, including a hate that was unsettling to see on the normally optimistic, joyful hedgehog. "Th-that's when I n-n-noticed that something was wrong f-for the f-first time. Wh-when the r-r-red st-started to leak lik-ke that."

"The crying?"

"Y-y-yeah. Onlllllllllly when I w-was really upssssset. Or angggggggggggggggry." The flares around him got worse, and his face shook. It was unsettling to see it - it almost looked like his head was losing its shape, becoming a series of disconnected polygons held together by trails of electricity. "I've allllllllllwayssssssssss been a little jealousssssss of y-y-you, Sh-Shad-d-d-d-dow. I was c-cool ten yearsssss ago, b-but you're stilllllll cooooooooollllll now. P-p-people still lik-k-ke you. You're the Ullllllllltimat-t-te Lllllliffffffffffffffeffffffffform-m-m-m." The last words got dragged out as his spasms got worse. The connection of the chain to the wall started to shake, and Shadow couldn't help but wonder how secure the walls were.

Shadow's communication device whirred into life. He almost didn't notice that it was his own device, and not more of Sonic's speech, until the distinctly feminine words came through. "Shadow," Rouge's voice said, cutting through the signal, "you need to get out of there now! You're making him worse!"

Touching his earpiece, he replied, "We've found out more about how this happened and what he wants in the last five minutes than in the whole four days we've held him here. Give me some more time."

"No way! All the intel in the world won't help us if he gets bad enough that we can't bring him back. You need to leave now. That's an order."

He clenched his fist, ripping out the earpiece, throwing it to the ground, and stomping on it. It broke into tiny shards, the connection to the outside fizzling out, and he let out an exasperated yell.

Sonic seemed to have settled, his face in a smile. "That'ssssssss right. You d-d-don't tak-ke ordersss from anyone, d-do you?"

"Shut up!" Shadow gripped the bridge of his nose between his fingers. That was a mistake, he knew that. Now Rouge wouldn't be able to reference anything Sonic was talking about, or even know what he was doing. Much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He needed to go.

As he started to stand up and walk out, though, the nearly-mechanical voice coming from the former hero spoke to him in a near whisper. "Y-y-you w-w-w-want to know wh-what's wrooooooooong with me, Shadow? Isssssssss that w-why you're here?" Shadow turned to look at him, and Sonic focused on him with a knowing smile. "B-b-becausssssssssssssseeeeeeeeee I'll tell you. Jussssssssttttttttt get clossssssser, and-d-d-d I'll tell yoooooooouuuuuuuuu."

Shadow huffed. This was obviously a trap of some kind. Sonic was smart enough to know when he wasn't being monitored - he'd been in the game too long to make that kind of amateur escape. What did he think he was going to accomplish, held by chains and the pure energy of the game? The idea was absurd. But something didn't feel right about this, and if there was one thing Shadow learned from his many years in a speed platforming game, it was to trust his instincts.

Before Shadow could leave, though, he stopped. What if this was the only way he'd be able to figure out how to fix him? Even if it was a trap, they didn't have time to spare. The more information they had, the closer they'd be to fixing him. Fixing everything.

It was a risk, but it was one he had to take.

He sighed and sat down in front of Sonic, looking him directly in those terrifying, familiar eyes. "What is it?"

"It'ssss called a c-code injection, Shhhhhhhhadow. B-bad code, by b-bad people. W-wanting to hurt-t-t-t people. Thhhhey p-put them in mods ssssssoooooooo people l-like me will put them in g-games, th-thinking they're jussssssst changing ssssomething sssssmall. Lik-k-ke my eyesssssssss. And then, it ch-changes the g-g-g-game asssss it spreadssssssssss... tearsssssss it ap-p-part from the insssside." His eyes flickered between black and not with increasing frequency. "I w-w-was s-so ssssstupid. C-c-could've b-broken the whole g-game. B-b-but I just b-broke me." He let out a forced laugh, one with no heart in it. It sounded like the static of a bad radio, barely connecting to the sound it was intended for. "And n-now I'm st-stuck here, b-b-bec-cause people g-got hurt. B-b-but y-you want-t-t to know s-s-something am-m-mazing, Shadow?"

Shadow didn't reply, instead picking up the bits of communicator from the ground. In his hand, they looked like candy wrappers, not a state of the art device. He scoffed and turned around, going towards the door. This was obviously a waste of effort, he thought. Then the feedback-laughter grew louder, and Shadow could swear it surrounded him, pressing in on him from all sides. He put his hands over his ears, but it didn't help - Sonic's voice was inside him too, reverberating from inside his head. "B-being like this? It ffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllssssssss sssssssssssooooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooddddd."

The voice gave way entirely to static and unintelligible sounds, his form becoming more and more disjointed. With horror, Shadow saw his hands clipping in and out of the cuffs that bound him. He started to sprint for the door, but collided into something hard and heavy before he could reach the handle. It was him, having moved across the room, entirely free of his restraints. "How-"

"The new c-c-code issssss from outsssssssid-d-de the game, Sh-shadow. I d-d-don't havvvvvvvvvvvve to follllllow all the rullllllllessssss anym-m-more. D-d-did you rrrrrrrealllllllly think you coullllllldddddddd keeeeeep me lock-k-ked up-p-p in here? Guesssss you're the naivvvvvvve one n-n-now."

A clawed hand grabbed Shadow by the throat, pulling him up from the floor. With inhuman strength, Shadow felt himself being hurled against the wall, denting the containment unit they found themselves in before he fell to the ground. A foot pinned him down, pressing him to the floor and cutting off his oxygen. He felt himself panic as he became powerless, scrabbling hands unable to remove the other from on top of him. The eyes looking down on him were barely visible behind what now seemed like a massive body, but he could still see them - they were now almost fully pitch black, with small pinpricks of red in the center. Red tears dripped from them, dissolving on contact with his flesh, and they chilled him to the bone.

"I'vvvvvve been waiting f-f-for them t-t-t-to s-send ssssssssomeone in here. I've b-b-been sssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo huuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnngry. It'sssssssssss like a b-b-black h-h-hole in my sssssssssstomach, Shadow. Like I'm b-being torn ap-p-p-part from the insssssside."

Shadow tried to swing his foot at Sonic's face, but it only managed to be stabbed by one of his sharp teeth. Sonic's laughter turned maniacal, the frequent movement of his jaws sending spiking pain through the puncture in his foot, and Shadow grimaced from it.

"Beccccccccccccaaaaaaaaaaause you know wh-what the c-c-code injection did?" The grip on his throat tightened, and Shadow cried out. This seemed to make Sonic even more happy, and his mouth widened as he slowly pulled Shadow's foot off his tooth with the other hand. "It-t-t-t made me sssssssssssstrrrrronger. B-b-but inssssssteeeeeaaaaaaaaad of rings, I need p-p-people. Th-that's the problem, Shadow. I n-n-need people inssssssiiiiide me to k-k-keeeeeeeeep goingggggg. That'sssssss the deal with the d-d-devil I m-m-made. The p-price I neeeeed to pay f-f-for n-n-not read-d-ding the fine p-p-print." The black eyes grew wider, and the person in front of him - his hero, his rival, his almost friend - was now unrecognizable. The laughter hurt his ears, and he felt his weight pinning him more and more to the floor. Shadow tried to hold as steady as he could, to not show fear, but he felt himself shaking despite himself. He wanted to convince himself that it was only shivering from the cold, but deep down, he knew that wasn't true. How could he be so stupid? He'd barely gotten Sonic in here, and now the corrupted blue hero had the advantage of surprise.

In this world, one advantage your enemy had over you could mean your death.

"What are you going to do to me?" he said, trying to keep his voice even and calm. "Are you going to tear me apart? Like you did with the others?" The sight of their deaths stuck in his mind as he said the words - the scattered corpses of dead animals, littered across the formerly idyllic Green Hill Zone. Tails' throat torn out, unable to breath at all, his face stuck in a state of complete, utter shock. Knuckles' spines torn from his head and arranged in the shape of a star, the remaining skull ripped from the rest of his body. Their bones splayed about, broken and all flesh ripped away from them. And the blood, covering everything in the dark, wet red of fresh carnage.

Would that be his fate as well? Was he going to be nothing more than some kind of meal to satiate this… this unholy vermin? This fallen hero? He couldn't help but anticipate the pain of his muscles torn from the rest of him, of his organs being ripped out, of his insides being exposed….

Sonic grinned, showing all of his jagged teeth at once. The far ends ripped his own lips apart, but he didn't seem to mind, even as his own blood splattered on the floor. "No, Sh-shadow. Y-you would-d-d-d be d-deliiiiiiiciiiiiiouuuuuuus, I d-don't doubt. B-b-but y-you're specialllll to me. Y-y-you're another p-p-protagonist. Y-y-you can't die like the others." Sonic bent down, and the dripping eyes began to land on Shadow's face in large splashes. He closed his eyes involuntarily as they hit, making his face freezing cold. "I n-neeeeeed a friend. I k-killed all my otherrrrrrrrr friends. I'm sooooooo loooooooooooonelllllllyyyyyyy. And yyyyyyooooooouuuuu? Yoooooouuuuuuu're perrrrrrrrrrfect."

His tears came down in a deluge, and Shadow felt his eyes freeze shut in crystalline patterns. He tried to ask how this could be happening, why he was so important, or what purpose any of this could possibly have, but he could only let out a slight hissing sound before Sonic pressed his foot even more into Shadow's chest. His mouth arched open in pain, but he couldn't even scream.

"Sssssooooooooo here's what-t I'm going to do. Y-you're going to t-t-take s-some new eyes, j-just like mine. And-d-d then, y-y-you're going to go out-t-t there and wait. Y-you're going to fight it. Y-y-you're going to think-k-k you can beat-t th-this code injection with willlllll alone. L-like I did. And-d-d-d-d then, it's going to ch-change you untillllll you're jusssst. Lik-k-ke. Mmmmeeeeee."

Despite the cold freezing his flesh, the next part still hurt him beyond imagining. Sonic dug his claw like fingers in the other's eyes, digging inside of them. His vision was silver from the pain, blacking out at the edges, and he felt a slashing pain across his chest just before he passed out. "It w-worksssssssss bettttttttter if yyyyyou'rrrre awak-ke," he could barely hear through the blood going to his ears, "sssssssooooooooooo don't-t passssss out-t-t on mmmmmmmmeeeeeeeee."

Too much pain to fight, too little oxygen to reply, Shadow let his body go limp. He could feel the now hollows of his eyes being filled with something new. Something frozen and wrong.

"Oh, and jussssst so y-you don't tellllllll anybod-d-dy about thisss, I have a fffew more thingsssssssss to do." Compared to the searing pain of earlier, the breaking of his hands and the dislocation his jaw felt like papercuts, but he still noticed and acknowledged the pain. Sonic glitched back into his cuffs, and he nodded at the door with his head. "N-now go out-t there. B-break it allllll down. Or I guessssssssssss you c-could sssstay in here, w-with me. Either way, it'lllllll all end the sssssssame." He grinned, settling into the floor like he had just finished playing an especially satisfying game. His eyes returned to being mostly normal, save for the red that mirrored Shadow's own. It was strange. He almost looked...normal, now. "And Shhhhhhadow?" he called out from his corner. "Hurrrrrrrry baaaaaack."

Not wasting a second, Shadow used his arms to feel for the door, open the latch, and immediately swing it shut behind him. The Chaos reinforcement of the containment chamber returned in a whoosh, and he felt his chest like it was on fire, oxygen rushing back to his lungs. He collapsed forward, weak in the knees, and Rouge rushed to catch him. "Shadow!" she cried out, helping him back to his feet. "Oh Chaos, it looks like you barely got out alive! I told you to get out when you still had the chance-"

Shadow lifted his arm, broken hand and all, in a gesture to be quiet. He tried to speak, but that only made his throat fill with blood, which he promptly coughed on the floor. "Shadow, no! Don't talk!" Rouge said. "It's okay. You can heal quickly, right? And then we'll figure this out. Just… take your time."

Shadow nodded, turning away from her. He felt his stomach growl, and he clutched it with his arm, knowing that time was definitely not on his side. He only looked back at her, seeing his reflection in the metal behind her. He looked bruised and battered - his foot with a gash showing through his shoe, his hands at awkward angles, and his jaw slightly unhinged - but otherwise, there was nothing to suggest what had happened to him inside the room. His eyes were completely the same, aside from some discoloration around the skin. Maybe he imagined it all? After all, if his eyes had really been gouged out, if Sonic had really put those…those things in his head… it would have looked worse. Right?

Yeah, that's right. It had to have been some illusion… some abnormality Sonic caused. This had been useless after all, and they had to find another way to get him back to normal.

As he limped away from the site, he felt himself tear up. When he wiped them away, they felt cold. On his gloves, they were staining red.

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 **[[AN: Yeah, it might be kind of OOC. Whatever. That's kind of the point. Sidenote: for an original story that's so rooted in the game format, I'm kind of surprised how few of the fan works using the concept refer to the technical basis of it (not that the original story is that good, mind). This is the concept slightly modeled after Oxenfree, using my own weird flavoring, and I tried to get the balance of something that would work in universe and still be creepy. Let me know if you think it works.]]**


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